Competitors ready for Canfield Fair Junior Fair

While some Canfield Fair attendants prefer the fast rides and greasy food, others just enjoy showing off their animals.

On the first day of the fair, the Mahoning County Junior Fair participants were ready to go, keeping their animals' pens clean and presenting the animals for judging when it was time.

Sam Kanagy, 11, is in his third year as a competitor, working with dairy feeder calves.

He had a rough go of it his rookie year.

"The first year I didn't do good at all," said Sam, a student at West Branch Middle School. "It was a big cow and it ran all over the place."

This year will probably be a different story since Sam's cow, Jake, isn't as much of handful as Jim, his first-year cow.

While Sam has been getting up each morning at 5:30 to bottle feed the calf, his brother, Michael, 9, has had it a little easier, at least with feeding.

Michael's been working with his pig, Chubs, for about two or three months. Feeding is easy; just throw some feed down.

But it's the training that's been tough, especially in the beginning.

"It didn't want to walk or listen to me," said Michael, who is competing for the first time.

A last-minute struggle for the new pig trainer was getting Chubs down to the right weight

Yes, Chubs had a little too much chub, weighing in at 309 when it should've been 300.

"We had to put him on a diet, and we exercised him," Michael said.

Chubs had to follow an intense workout routine and a strict diet of ears of corn. That put him at the right weight, putting Michael and Chubs in the competition. However, Michael doesn't want to peak too early in his career.

"I'm hoping for fourth or third place," he said.

That way, he said, he can build up to first place in a few years, instead of getting first in his rookie year and never getting it again.

First place might be tough for the first-time competitor anyway. Just a few pens down, Travis Pidgeon, a 10-year veteran, is looking after his pig.

Travis, 18, a senior at West Branch High School, is part of a Junior Fair dynasty. His older brothers, Taylor, 21, and Tyler, 20, focus on steers, he said. And his younger sister, Madison, 15, has done really well training pigs.

In fact, many of the banners for cattle competition champions are littered with the Pidgeon name, thanks to Taylor and Tyler.

Travis is competing in the pig and steer competitions this year.

In regard to a steer competition, he said, a competitor must keep the animal well fed and groomed or fitted.

"I want his belly full with feed and water and the hair pulled up on the leg," Travis said.

Pigs are simpler.

"Pigs, you just got to make them look clean and shiny," he said.

Travis saves the money he wins from the competitions to pay for college. And that's the case with most competitors, he said.

Today is Youth Day at the Canfield Fair. The day will include the coronation of the 4-H king and queen and the announcement of Mahoning County Junior Fair Outstanding Youth.